Entranced

At All Costs

It was a silent room as the group of men stood in front of the CEO of Shin Corp, who had summoned them on a particularly grey morning. It was quiet, save the sounds of breathing and slight fidgeting and the tinkling of chinaware.

Mr. Shin was mildly annoyed as he stared at them one by one, and they each lowered their gaze as he did.

How can they, a team of his most elite bodyguards, be able to not find her after all this time?

How can they, these military-trained, former Presidential guards, not be able to find one person in one country?

Mr. Shin exhaled in displeasure.

It couldn't be that Hyejeong was compromised by any abductor, he reasoned with himself. He had been ready to negotiate with whoever who had abducted his daughter, had been so desperate to hear from them, or his daughter. He even had nightmares just hearing her scream for help.

Therefore he had sent his team to search for her. Discreetly, of course. He didn't want any of his competitors to find out that there as a potential for scandal. And he would have none of it, even if it meant he had to keep his daughter's disappearance a secret from the upper echelons of society. Besides, it wasn't as if they saw much of her anyway, considering the quiet life his daughter led.

But after two weeks of furious hunting, the searches came with unexpected results – Hyejeong had vanished without a trace. And by then he was privy to think that maybe she hadn't been abducted like he had initially thought.

And the more he thought about it, the more certain he was that she had not been in any danger. There were security checks scanning guests on the engagement party, so no one could have entered. But that didn't mean no one could escape. And, considering how furious and upset Hyejeong had been when she was confined to her room, he couldn't blame her. If it were him, he would run away too.

But wasn't it enough to be gone for a week? It was now almost a month and there was still no sign of her whatsoever. If she had wanted to make a statement, it was time for it to end. This was no rebellious phase. She was insulting her family name by doing something like this.

He let out a long sigh, taking the small teacup on the table and sipping the imported tea. When he placed it down, a maid took the teacup and refilled it.

The sound of tea filled the silence as he looked up. "Are you still monitoring her phone whereabouts?" he asked calmly.

The leader of the guard nodded. "Yes, sir. But it is still not connected to any network. We believe she either threw it away or is on airplane mode."

"What about any tip-offs?" he asked, "Any appearance, or any sort of physical whereabouts?"

They shook their head.

"And that friend of hers, what's her name?"

"Cha Jang Mi, sir?"

"Whatever. What about her?"

"There seems to be nothing amiss. She mostly goes to her offices in the morning, comes back in the afternoon, and goes out with her fiancé in the evenings," came the report, "We follow her at all times."

And there was still no sign of Hyejeong? Impossible.

Mr. Shin sighed. "I didn't want to have to do this," he said heavily, dropping a sugar cube into his teacup, "But you leave me no choice but to enlist the assistance of the police force."

There was an intake of breath. "But sir, you said you didn't want to-"

Mr. Shin looked up with a cold gaze. "You've disappointed me. All of you," he replied icily, "I've wasted not only time, but money and resources in investing my efforts in our top of the rank services. I think it's time I moved some of my eggs to another basket."